The Eve of Spring
by Karri
Summary: Merry needs some cheering up before the army of the West departs Minas Tirith Legolas provides it. An attempt to respond to The Fellowship Followers’ Easter Bunny challenge without straying too far from canon


Summary: Merry needs some cheering up before the army of the west departs Minas Tirith. (An attempt to respond to The Fellowship Followers' Easter Bunny challenge without straying too far from canon.)

Disclaimer: The characters and places of the Lord of the Rings are the creation of J.R.R. Tolkien, and currently licensed to New Line Cinema. All original characters and situations belong to the author. No slash expressed or implied at any time in any of my stories.

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Seated upon a heap of tumbled stone, Merry watched the bits and pieces of the army of the West drift together upon the Pelennor. His heart was filled with a yearning that was plain to see in his eyes, yet his head was more sensible. Aragorn had spoken truly; he was not fit to make the journey, no matter how great his desire. I have come all this way only to be left behind in the end, he thought, and sighed despondently.

Gimli heard the sad sound as he leaned against a portion of standing wall, drawing upon his borrowed pipe. He frowned, but could think of no words of comfort for his young companion. All the same, he moved forward, thinking to offer a supportive pat at the least. The cooing of a fair elven voice nearby distracted him.

Looking around, Gimli found the Legolas sitting cross-legged upon the ground before the broken gate. He appeared to be stroking the long ears of a…of a… Nay, it cannot be, Gimli told himself. The fool elf was _not_ sitting on the edge of battle and ruin with a rabbit in his lap!

"Blasted elves!" he grumbled beneath a puff of smoke. Merry turned to see what Legolas had done to earn the dwarf's ire. His despair temporarily forgotten, the hobbit gaped at the sight of his elven friend.

"Legolas, wherever did you find a rabbit amongst all this?" Merry asked, gesturing bemusedly to the stone city looming over them.

Lifting his gaze, Legolas grinned as he replied, "I did not find him, Master Meriadoc. He found me."

"Whomever did the finding, this is hardly the time…" began Gimli.

"Oh, but there you are mistaken, friend Gimli. Now is precisely the time," interrupted Legolas soberly. "For the care of this little fellow is no light matter. Yet I cannot tarry to attend to him. Thus am I greatly troubled."

Gimli huffed and turned away. No light matter? It was but a rabbit!

Merry was not inclined to dismiss Legolas so easily. Peering down, he studied the rabbit closely. It was not the usual greyish brown of bunnies that he had before seen. Small and slender, its ebony nose and ears reminded him of Elrond's flowing mane, but the rest of its long body was white and its eyes were red, which brought to Merry's mind thoughts of the White Hand and Red Eye joined in single purpose. He shivered.

"This is no ordinary rabbit," he murmured warily.

"Indeed no," said Legolas. "This is an Easter Bunny, or so his name would be rendered in the common tongue."

"An Easter Bunny?" Gimli huffed skeptically. "Never heard of such a thing!"

But Merry asked wonderingly, "What _is _an 'Easter Bunny'?"

"An 'Easter Bunny" is a rabbit that appears out of the east with the first light of dawn," said Legolas patiently, caressing the skittery creature's long ears.

"And that makes his care 'no light matter'?" scoffed the dwarf.

"Indeed yes," came the simple answer.

"Why is that, Legolas?" Merry asked curiously. Reaching out a hand, he tentatively stroked the rabbit's short, soft fur.

"That is because he is a harbinger of our riding forth," answered Legolas. "So long as he lives, so shall our cause, for he heralds the dawning of a fair spring without shadow."

"Elvish nonsense," Gimli muttered beneath his breath, rolling his eyes.

Merry simply stared at the elf with questioning eyes.

Legolas met his gaze with a pensive smile and said, "I shall tell you the tale of another Easter Bunny and then perhaps you will understand."

"On the eve of spring many long years ago, the King of the Greenwood rested upon the open lands that march east of the forest. The sky was clear and the stars bright, yet his thoughts were heavy. In his arms lay his queen. She was deep in slumber, fatigued by the conception of a child she had long desired. A smile graced her fair face, for she was content. But there was no peace within the king's heart, and no smile upon his face."

"How sad," Merry murmured. "Did he not want a child?"

"I did not say so," answered Legolas guardedly. "The grief that troubled the king's heart was the memory of sons lost in a time of great darkness. He feared the darkness would return, and it blinded him to the hope that conception awakens.

"Still, after a time, his mind grew weary, and he too slept. Yet it was a light sleep, for his soul was restless.

"He woke at the waning of the dark hour before dawn. Slipping from his beloved's side, the king stretched and turned to watch the rising of the sun. There, approaching boldly from the east, was a rabbit. Very much like the one I hold here, it was of a sort he had not before seen. Nor has any other of its kind since been seen in our lands.

"As the king watched with curious amazement, the rabbit stopped mere feet from him. It stood up tall and proudly met his eyes. The king then knew the rabbit was a sign from Yavanna that the life conceived was not fated to a dark end. Thus was awoken in his heart a seed of hope a seed that flowered with the child's first breath."

"That's a pleasant story, Legolas. I do not see though…" Merry began, but the elf cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Of its own will, the rabbit dwelt near the king's palace and watched over the child. One day, though, the child went with his mother deep into the forest with many other elves to gather nuts and berries. Filled with the unbridled curiosity of the young and heedless of any peril, he wandered away from the others. His steps carried him to a strange path of sticky string, the like of which he had never before seen.

"Before long, he heard a hissing and creaking that stilled his feet. Trembling with fear, the child watched a bulbous black body drop from a branch onto the ground before him. His eyes widened as the creature turned its many eyes toward him.

"Then, in a flash, the rabbit darted past. The many eyes followed after, and the bulbous creature gave chase, as the child turned and fled back whence he had come."

"Oh, how sad!" exclaimed Merry. "The rabbit sacrificed itself for the child?"

Legolas nodded in confirmation. "Indeed, the rabbit was not seen again after that day. The king knew that it had been swallowed by a darkness coming once again out of the south. Thus, he also knew that he must prepare for the time to come."

"His halls he had enlarged by skilled hands into a fortress of great strength, while he travelled southward to gather his people and bring them northward, for they were greatly scattered. So it was, that as the shadowed deepened, the elves of the wood were not wholly swallowed up by it."

"And thus, I know this Easter Bunny to be a sign that, though many may fall, the darkness shall not swallow our army. Hence, our rabbit must be tended with care."

Legolas paused, his expression growing grave. "Would you consent to the task, Master Meriadoc?"

Merry nodded soberly.

"Come then, Master Elf. They will leave us behind if we do not hasten," Gimli said tersely. Noting an odd thickness to his gruff voice, Merry looked up, but the dwarf had turned his face away.

Following Merry's gaze, Legolas smiled knowingly, but said nothing as he gently placed the bunny in the hobbit's arms. Soon elf and dwarf were striding away companionably.

Merry continued to watch long after they had vanished into the throng. His searching eyes settled on Pippin, just visible amidst lofty soldiers. Merry was glad to see that his young cousin stood straight and proud, yet his own shoulders slumped desolately. Bergil joined him at his side, and silently they waited. Finally the trumpets finally rang and the army began to move.

Much too soon, it seemed, the spears and helms vanished from sight, and heavy gloom bowed the hobbit's head. _Everyone that he cared for had gone away into the gloom that hung over the distant eastern sky; and little hope was left in his heart that he would ever see any of them again."_

As if recalled by his mood of despair, the pain in his arm returned, and he felt weak and old, and the sunlight seemed thin. He was roused by the touch of Bergil's hand.

'Come, Master Perian!' said the lad. 'You are still in pain, I see, I will help you back to the Healers. But do not fear! They will come back. The Men of Minas Tirith will never be overcome. And now they have the Lord Elfstone, and Beregond of the Guard too.'

Merry nodded feebly and allowed Bergil to lead him away, while the rabbit nestled contentedly in his arms. The hobbit peered at his charge and felt the heaviness of his heart lessen somewhat. Nay, the Men of Minas Tirith will not be swallowed up by shadow, he thought. He straightened his shoulders. Here is the herald of a bright new spring's dawning.

The End.

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A/N: The italicized section is lifted directly from _Return of the King, Chapter X – The Black Gates Open_. Also, the term easter has been used here in the same manner that it is used in the name Easterling to describe beings coming out of the east.

_ 'Alfi shukr to Nilmandra for beta-ing this story. _


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